Week Four

This week was a short week due to weather.  We only worked in the office for a day in a half.  We are starting on schematic designs for the church and the north lot.  We have been thinking about turning the church into a bar, a hotel, apartments, and even a pool.  The challenge with the north site is parking.  We have two existing buildings, but the most efficient parking lot is a 120x180 foot.  There has been a lot of discussion on how do we get the parking to fit, do we get the parking to fit, etc.

Below is the diagram of the ideas we have been thinking about.

 On top of pre-design we meet with Jennifer Walke, from Model Group.  Jennifer worked with the City of Cincinnati and was in charge of the Over-the-Rhine area.  She gave us some insight into the building, as she had been inside many times.  It was nice to hear someone perspective who had been involved in the area for an extended time. She was involved in the clean up from the storm that took the clock tower down.  She has seen many proposals for the building over the years.  She has worked with the city and know the type of funding we could look into for the project.  The most important thing we got from the meeting with her was the desire to save the church.  It is a corner stone in that area and has been a marker for the residents for years.

The site visit to the Banks was interesting to see new development within the city. The Banks is a large development project right next to the Reds Stadium.  It is a mixed use project with retail, offices, and multi-range economic apartments.   We have been focusing on re-use that seeing the potential our infill project on the north site could have.  We walked through a normal apartment, a feature apartment, the retail space, and the parking garage. It was a great experience to see the new proposed city center in the building and design stages. 

 Apartment Views                               The Banks from a distance                Retail Space